A computing environment may include multiple independent services providing access to a wide variety of computing resources. For example, a data storage service may allow users to store and manage data in backend data storage systems.
Each of these services may, for security purposes, require that users authenticate themselves to the service. Over time, the distributed computing environment may introduce new authentication schemes, for example, as new security technologies become available. However, converting all of the services to use a new authentication scheme simultaneously may be impractical or even impossible due to the design of the services and cost considerations.